Chapter 58

~ Through the Queen’s Eyes ~

SW/SW/SW

In all her life, Helluva hated those adventurers. They pillaged everything they could get their hands off and destroyed natures, as well as killed its inhabitants just for their selfish desires. They were a bunch of cowardly apes, always bringing along their friends to indulge in obliterating anything that moved. Unforgivable, they were.

And for some weird reason, her beloved home would always be on their top priority. They came, wounded her, and left her alone to die before taking away the potions she had put so much effort in creating. What was more, they were always speaking in loop. It scared her that she wished the earth would swallow them whole.

However, there was this odd one amongst them. A male, he looked like a magic user. Living in loneliness, he was the first she could talk to for years. Different from the rest of those heartless adventurers, he understood what she was talking about, even followed her orders albeit half-heartedly.

What was his name again…? She swore it started with Ace…

AceMagician?

AceKool?

No, the latter seemed off…

She frowned when an intruder stepped inside her domain. Being the ruler of this dead forest, she could detect anything that did not belong to this place with ease.

She slithered to the uppermost level of her home, peeking through a hole in the wall. Even though her eyes found no one, her guts told her that there was someone up north, in that thick fog. How strange…

All of a sudden she felt fear creeping up to her mind. Untold fear, it was as if something terribly wrong coming to reap her life, to sever her head with the most dreadful way ever existed. Looking down, she found her hands shaking and her snake legs cowered.

Then she spotted him, wading through swamp. His lean body was covered in a simple, leather armor, holding nothing in his hands. His black hair was left in a messy state, truly in contrast with his deadly pale skin. It was so pale that she could make out his veins, pulsating with blood.

Her shaking worsened and she couldn’t help but shed tears.

…what are you?

That man stopped and slowly lifted his head to see the spot where she had been standing. Of course he found none, since Helluva was cowering underneath the hole, trembling uncontrollably.

…what is he…?

Panicking, she ran as far from that place, her heart beating like crazy. That man… he was not normal. Helluva was deeply ashamed for running away, but she was so cared. He might be dressed in simple garment appeared to be in low level, but he was emitting a horrible aura that reeked of bloodlust.

He was the same with that woman… that woman with a spear who severed all her snakehead legs…

…he is Death…

Helluva escaped to the underground cavern. It was full of poisonous mushrooms that were deadly to anything but snake. It, once inhaled, was capable to kill not only humans, but also the most powerful dragon. She had planted those mushrooms just for this.

Of course it was dark down there, but given that she had spent much of her life planting mushrooms, she could see everything so clearly. As she made her way to the biggest room in the cave, she was being careful not to accidentally brush the fungi with her snake legs. She knew they were fragile.

She finally arrived at her destination. The cavernous room was big enough for a four people battle. Toxic mushrooms sprouted in every nook and cranny, promising an unimaginable death to those foolish enough to explore this place.

He’s here. How foolish.

Helluva aimed her snakehead-legs in every direction. Once he stepped inside, she’d shoot the mushrooms nearby with her snake’s fangs. The fangs regenerated almost instantly, making them a deadly, short-ranged weapon. The drawback was that the fangs were quite weak and would deal measly amount of damage.

He was coming closer. His faint footsteps became clearer as he stepped closer to his destination until she could finally see him with her own eyes. Up close, he truly was a human with characteristics that described him as such, but her heart thought otherwise. He was not human. He was something more than that.

…something sinister…

“…stop,” she demanded sternly, although her snake legs shivered a little. Fear had made her forgotten about her tactic earlier, “Who are you? What do you want? Oh, forget the last question; you’d probably here to kill me and steal my potions!”

“I’m not interested in them.”

She gasped. His voice was far from a normal human voice. It sounded… monstrous, as if his voice was composed of ten different people speaking the same thing at the same time!

“I see. You are after me, then. Do you think I am some sort of EXP cattle, adventurer? All of you… all of you are selfish, greedy beings! You kill everything just to satisfy your needs! How many deaths would it take to make you all satisfied?!”

His refusal to answer made her angrier. “Tell me, do you know ‘pain’? Do you know ‘fear’? Thanks to you, I am living in fear! Fear to be killed, to be tortured! All I want is to live in peace, but you have destroyed that! And now you are here with the intention of killing me…!”

She drew in a long breath to help her concentrate. She would not let her emotions took over, “Look at what I have, adventurer.”

He narrowed his eyes as he studied his surroundings.

Helluva smirked, finally seeing a glimpse of fear in those bottomless eyes. “I didn’t think you’d be foolish enough to venture here, adventurer. This cave is full of deadly, fragile mushrooms which gas could even poison the mightiest of all to death. It only takes one shot from my snake to kill you.”

“…toxic,” he mumbled it aloud.

“Highly toxic,” she laughed, feeling triumphant. “You will die, writhing in unimaginable pain while I dance in front of you, unscathed! I will have you know that I am immune—”

“…basically it won’t happen once you’re unconscious.”

“Eh?” She did not know if he was using magic or was moving too fast for her to see, but all of a sudden he was behind her!

Obviously he was a magic user, but he made a fatal mistake. Standing so close behind her, he was obviously within her snakeheads’ reach! Competent spellcasters always maintained good distance between them and their enemies, but this man was the very definition of an idiot.

“Fool!!!” Helluva shouted, twirling her body. She aimed one of her snake-legs towards him, intending to rip him apart. However, he was gone before the attack connected, eliciting a surprised gasp from the scylla queen.

This time he appeared beside her, but he easily evaded her next attack. His figure disappeared as soon as it came and it annoyed her.

“Fight me fair and square, adventurer!!” she demanded through gritted teeth. “Stop running away like a coward!”

Helluva stopped dead in her track. Standing before her was him with face so close to her she could felt his hot breath against her skin. Up close, he looked more twisted than she had thought despite him having a perfectly normal human appearance.

“…running away? You are just too slow,” he gripped her slender neck and slammed her against the uneven ground. She let out a cry of agony when her head made a contact with sharp stones. Multitude of pain assaulted her, making her vision blurry.

Such strength…

…what level was he…?

“…are you… satisfied…?” she coughed weakly. Blood seeped through her head, slowly making a small puddle around it. “…you adventurers… all of you are the same…”

A self-satisfied smirk was the last thing Helluva seen before she blacked out.

0000

The bed underneath her body felt soft and cool against her skin. A blanket covered her body, making her safe and warm. Slowly her eyes stirred open. Her vision was met by a familiar surrounding that was her bedroom.

Weird, she remembered fighting the scary adventurer in the underground cave…

She suddenly sat but collapsed with a soft groan. She tried to touch her head, but found out that her hands were tied together. Confused beyond belief, she moved her legs to break the rope, but she couldn’t. Her legs could not even move an inch. It was as if someone had chained all of her snake-legs...

...and indeed they were chained!

“…awake, I see,” a bored voice murmured. Helluva turned sharply towards the source of voice and her body sprung to a sitting position.

That adventurer was there, reading what apparently was one of her books.

She hissed when he stood. “You bastard! What do you want from me?”

“…nothing. Howerver, it's just that... a crazy acquaintance of mine gave me this,” he produced a familiar choker from his inventory. “And I’d like to give this a try.”

Helluva gasped. That was a slave choker! Once worn, she’d not be able to lay a hand on him, let alone disobey his order! To become a slave to an adventurer…!!

“No! Y-You are crazy! You can’t do this to me!” she struggled when he tried to leash her. “No! No! I don’t want this…! Get this off me…!”

“That choker looks good on you, snake,” he commented venomously. “Well, let’s try this thing…”

No…!

No…

“Close your eyes,” he commanded. Due to the magical choker around her neck, she obeyed almost immediately.

“No, no. That was too easy.”

She opened her eyes in time to see him standing before her, arms stretched out to her. She forcefully closed her eyes, bracing herself from any impact. Thankfully it never came. He didn’t hit her. Instead he released her bindings and stood motionless, looking at her intently. His facial expression clearly told her that he was planning something really, really bad.

“…ah, how is this…” he sneered, “undress.”

“N-No…” her hands moved against her will. She cried when they threw away her girdle. “Please, stop… stop… Stop this, I beg you! I will… I will do anything, so please…!”

His face lighted up when he heard that, “Ah? What did you just say?”

“I-I will do anything, but please don’t make me do this…!” she was still a virgin, of course she was deathly afraid of what would become of her. She was not clueless about sex, but to have her first time with a filthy adventurer… cruel no less…

“Alright, stop.”

Helluva let out a sigh of relief when her hands ceased their movements, but terror overcame her a second later. Out of fear, she had unintentionally accepted her role as his slave. Now everything was over. She was on the mercy of this man… it would be a matter of time until he forcefully took her virginity away…

When she looked up to negotiate, the adventurer suddenly collapsed face first.

Helluva turned her head around, looking for the savior who had saved her life, but there was no one beside them in this place. Looking at the unmoving figure on the carpet, Helluva gulped and shook his shoulder. He did not wake up. Turning him around, Helluva yelped in fear to see his eyes were opened. She waved a hand, but he didn’t blink, let alone move his eyes.

…he was dead.

“I’m free!!” she yelled while taking a hold of the slave choker. Now that her master was dead, the choker should lose its power and she’d able to tear it to pieces with ease!

…to her horror, it wouldn’t come off.

…she could not destroy it…

Panicking, she searched his body, hoping to find some kind of key. She checked his pockets, his neck just in case if he wore it like a necklace…

…but she found nothing!!

“What on earth is this choker? It is supposed to lose its power once the owner dies!!” she pulled it out the second time but to no avail. This time she decided to let her legs did the dirty work. However, no matter how many times they pulled, they could not even scratch the damn thing.

Slowly, she prostrated, losing her energy. Her master was dead, but she remained a slave. What was she supposed to do; taking care of a dead body? Protecting the corpse of her ex-master forever?

…what was she supposed to do now…?